, 1887-11-09

understood TO be substantially that al
ready selected, and with which you are
familiar.
After the right of the United States to
build the canal had expired, as stated
previously, Mr.. Menocal secured the con.
cessiOn for the present association, and
the canal will be built upon the line sur
veyed by him, of which he says in his
official report to the Secretary of the Navy
(Sen. Elk. Doc. so. Forty.ninth Congress,
first SESSION.;
The canal route here described and re-
commended for consideration is believed
to be perfectly practicable, free from COM
plicated or doubtful engineering problems,
and the most economical, convenient and
safe route for interoceanic ship commnni-
cation between the Atlantic aud Pacific
oceans, and not through the State of Nj
caragua, but across the American 18TH
mus. A fnal and more detailed location
of the line may show where changes in
detail can be made in the interest Of ali
economical construction but the general
direction and main features cannot, it. is
firmly believed, be greatly improved upon.
The proposed route extends from the
harbour of Greytown, ON the Caribbean
Sea, to Brito, on the Pacific. Its total
length is 1898 miles, of which 1898 miles;
will be excavated canal and 1902 miles
navigation by Lake Nicaragua, the river
San Juan (the Outlehof the lake), the basin
of the river San Francisco, and through
seven locks. A canal with locks must me-
ceSsarily lave the lake for its summit
level. This inland sea is 'about ninety
miles long and from t~hirty-tive to forty
miles wide. III the rainy season of 1878
it's surface attained an elevation of ITO
feet above the mean level of the sea, and
this plane has been assumed as the sum
nit level of the canal.
The canal is required by the concession
to be constructed of sufficient dimensions
for the free and commodious passage of
vessels Of the sam3 size as the large stea-
merS used for ocean navigation in Europe
and Africa, and no lock used in the work
can be less than $50 feet in length and
80 feet in depth.
The locks proposed to have % uniform
length of $50 feet between the gates and
a least width of So feet between the abut-
ments. The highest lift is SO feet and the
lowest "a feet.
The necessary machinery for moving the
lock and culvert gates, for hauling ships
in and out of the locks, for electric lights
aud other purposes will be worked by
hydraulic power.
The bottom width of the canal varies
from 80 to 100 feet, and the surface width
from so to 28S feet, with a depth of from
% to 80 feet.
Mr.. Menocal estimates the total cost of
the canal at $64,O36, 1877. In making this
estimate he says it has been his purpose
to exaggerate rather than to nnderestl-
mate the difficulties likely to be met with
in the execution of the work.
Article TX. of the concession says:
s'The people of all nations shall be invi-
ted to contribute the necessary capital to
the enterprise, and it shall be sufficient
for the fnlflment of this requirement to
publish an advertisement for thirty days
in one of the principal daily papersof each
of the cities "New York, London and
Paris
With regard to the advantages of a
canal with locks over one on the sea level
Admiral Ammen says:-
There are two controlling conditions in
the construction of a snip canal when con-
sidered as a commercial question:, namely
an abundant water supply, and a salts
factory surface drainage. Every hydrau-
lie engineer will coneede that nothing
further is demanded than that the traffic
shall pay a fair interest on the cost of con-
struction and maintenance Sir John
Hawkshaw assertedM this at the Paris
Canal Congress in 1879. !hedate Ashbel
WEIGH and his pupil, the late Conel John
G. Stevens, have at various times assert
nd tho al WANTS oaSYof lnckaon as mSS6ninp